Brandtrust recently attended The Market Research Event (TMRE) conference held in Nashville, TN. We sent our largest contingency to date to learn, observe, and gather trends, insights and best practices that are shaping the future of an industry about which we care so much. The 2.5 days organized by TMRE were full to say the least. The challenge every 50 minutes was deciding which session to attend next.

Do you remember the old popular song “Little Things Mean a Lot”? It would make a good anthem for the companies out there who do not understand that a consciousness of doing what you say you will do when you say you will do it is a vital part of what works for a brand.

In the context of a life being lived with all its doubt and certainty, happiness and sadness, it might seem trivial to talk about what part brands play in these engrossing privacies. But we must look there because it's around the doubt and certainty, and within the happiness and sadness, that brand stories must truly reside. And when we think about how we can attract extremely distracted people to our sainted product, we have to think about how it can contribute to their enchanting dramas, how it might find a place within their deeply personal sense of identity, how it can make the journey of their lives easier, better, happier, or somehow more fulfilling.

Looking at how brands affect our subconscious thoughts and feelings provide refreshing insights for all marketers who want to better understand what makes you, me, and the rest of the world tick. Not just for profit but for the sheer fun of getting to know ourselves and our customers as human beings. We are not Affluent Singles, or (my favorite horror) DINKS, meaning Double Income No Kids. These kinds of pigeon holes are artificial designations, known as “segmentations,” to make marketing seem easier, but they lump us into amorphous masses that simply do not align with the way we think of ourselves, our families, or friends and neighbors.

When I say brands are about feelings, not facts, I’m proposing once again that people make buying decisions based on how what they are buying makes them feel. Does it make them feel more confident, secure, cool, pretty, smart, savvy, or happy? Does it represent their values? Would their friends approve? What do their choices say about them as people?